AR Lottery Gives Scholarships 15 Cents of Every Dollar in August

Arkansas Lottery

Yesterday the Arkansas Lottery posted its financial reports for the month of August.

The reports show the Arkansas Lottery made more than $40.3 million last month, but paid out less than $6.2 million for scholarships. That means students received about 15 cents of every dollar the Lottery made in August.

For perspective, our neighbors in Louisiana budget at least 35% of their lottery’s revenue for education.

Although it is too early to tell, if the last two months are any indicator, the Arkansas Lottery will pay out somewhere around $70 – $80 million in college scholarships in Fiscal Year 2019 — well below the $100 million lottery proponents told voters in 2008 that students would get every year.

Below is a breakdown of Lottery figures so far this fiscal year.

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July $42,413,352.70 $5,066,628.73 11.9%
August 40,343,279.62 6,175,998.40 15.3%
Total $82,756,632.32 $11,242,627.13 13.6%

Photo Credit: Roman Oleinik [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons

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Seven Religious Liberties Every Student Needs to Know About

Religious Freedom, ,

This month Family Research Council published a list of seven religious liberties everyone needs to know that public school students have.

FRC writes,

Censoring of religious expression in schools often comes from teachers and school administrators being unaware of students’ freedoms. However, the U.S. Department of Education has already clarified that students are free to speak about their faith at school. . . .Since 1995, the U.S. Department of Education has issued guidelines clarifying students’ freedom to express their faith. There are seven key liberties every student and educator needs to know.

Family Research Council says those seven rights are:

  1. The right to pray and read the Bible at school.
  2. The right to express faith in class work or homework.
  3. The right to organize prayer groups and religious clubs at school.
  4. The right to express religious belief at school events.
  5. The right to go off campus for religious studies in some states.
  6. The right to express faith at graduation ceremonies.
  7. The right of teachers to organize prayer groups with other teachers.

This is a welcome reminder once again that student’s and teachers do not shed their religious liberties at the schoolhouse doors.

One way we encourage students to exercise these religious liberties is to take part in the annual Bring Your Bible to School Day that Focus on the Family organizes each year. You can learn more about Bring Your Bible to School Day here.

You can download FRC’s printable flyer explaining these seven liberties here.

Photo Credit: Batotman [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

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